old Kettles, Spurrged &^c &^c – Pages of different Books and Journals Strewed in Short all over the apartment[.] I acquainted Mess^rs M^cLeod and Keneth M^cKenzie and was desired by the Letter to mention the circumstance to you Sir[.] The Athabasca Library is also, I may say, not only neglected but nearly destroyed[.] Scarcely a complete Sett of Books can be found – by these different circumstances, a person might be tempted to think with great truth, that one thing Kept Pace with another in the decline of once famed Athabasca – Formerly the delight and School of the North[.] The Canadiens who were ever fond of the Place and thought Seldom or ever of their native Country are now disgusted at the treatment they recieve, and gather their money, as fast as the Sq__s gather Berries, in order to get rid of the S__cc__e Pays M__d__te[.]

Respecting this Place the Lake of which I had always understood was much Larger than Lake Superior – I can as yet say but little being a Stranger and having no Proper Interpreter to get myself explained to the natives – it would however appear, (from what information I could pick up from the Indians inhabiting the Borders of this extensive Lake) that it is not quite so extensive as Lac Superieur[.] There is no such thing as a River discharging itself from it into the Frozen Ocean[.] The Copper mine River is about four days walk from the East end of the Lake – and the natives also affirm that the Sea is much nearer to the end of the Lake, than it is from where Sir Alex^r MacKenzie turned back on the Grand River – which

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